Market sources say that about 20 million Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) processors will be used in Dell's servers, desktop PCs and notebooks between the fourth quarter of 2006 and the fourth quarter of 2007.

Lite-On IT started volume production of 18x DVD burners in July of this year and expects shipments of such burners to begin to increase next quarter, according to industry sources, who noted that Sony launched a 18x Super Multi model in Europe last month and Pioneer will also offer a 18x DVD burner.

Archos will soon offer an updated version of its current "604" portable media player (PMP) that can connect to Wi-Fi networks: Named "604 Wi-Fi," the device sports the same design and basic hardware specs as the regular 604, the new player will enable users to share digital content with other devices such as PC that are connected to a 802.11 b/g network.
The device will also include a version of Opera's web browser to allow users to surf the Internet. Data entry is enabled via the 4.3" (480x272 pixel) touchscreen and a virtual keyboard.

Sunnyvale (CA) - AMD's quad-core architecture won't be released until mid-2007, but the company is already discussing some features of the new Opterons and Athlons. Power consumption will remain a center piece of AMD's product strategy: Clock speed control of the individual cores will allow the chips to remain in the same power envelope as their dual-core predecessors.

City of Industry (CA) - Shuttle has rolled out their newest small form factor computer built specially for Intel's Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme processors. Running the 975X Express chipset, the Shuttle P2 3700 can support up to 8 GB of RAM and four hard drives. There's even enough space to dual PCI Express graphics cards.

The next generation of USB sticks is knocking on our doors: Pretec is the first company to announce a device that packs 16 GB of storage space into the form factor of a common USB Flash stick.
The new I-Disk II can save the contents of more than three regular DVDs or 23 CDs. There is enough storage space for about 10,000 digital images or 4000 MP3 music files. Pretec claims that the memory stick runs at a speed of 166x, offering a data transfer rate of about 25 MB/s.

Ridgefield Park (NJ) - Samsung today announced a new challenger for Apple's Ipod Nano. The new "K5" does not only come in a stylish package and sufficient storage space; the device also comes with a unique new feature: A pair of slide-out speakers.

Berlin (Germany) - Sandisk today introduced the latest addition to its line of MP3 players with the Sansa c200, which supports WMA and MP3 playback, an FM tuner, and a built-in microphone for audio recording. Equipped with up to 2 GB of flash memory in a standard configuration, the capacity can be expanded with MicroSD cards.

A small startup company is developing a wireless antenna that promises to dramatically extend range. According to documents filed with the FCC, hField Technologies is developing its "Wi-Fire" wi-fi b/g antenna system which plugs into a USB port. Using a combination of directional and powered amplification, the antenna promises to triple wireless range for the "seriously mobile" user.

Glendale, a suburb just north-east of Los Angeles, is going wireless. The City Council voted on Tuesday to request proposals to make a city-wide wi-fi network. Tourists, residents and businesses would be able to access the network for a "reasonable fee", according to Steven Hronek, the city's communications director.

With over 100 million customers already tapped into the voice-over IP messenger, Skype is now accessible through the first pair of cordless phones that integrate Skype software with a traditional landline phone, without the need to connect to a PC. The new phones will function almost identically to a regular handset - with the exception of emergency calls.

Graphics cards featuring Nvidia's new GeForce 7100 GS graphics processor unit (GPU), which was recently added to the company's entry-level product lineup, will hit the market in the middle of September, according to sources at Taiwan-based graphics card makers.

Google has begun offering full-text downloads of many older books. Google's Book search now has a "full view" option which lets people search for full-text books. Web surfers can flip through these one page at a time or they can download the books in PDF format.